The San Diego Section’s top high school divers gathered last weekend at Granite Hills High School to determine place-finishes in the Division I and Division II finals.
The competition field included 37 divers between the two divisions, which are based on school enrollment size.
Diving depends on many factors, including the weather. Last Saturday’s CIF finals were held under warm, sunny conditions.
It proved to be to the liking of San Ysidro High School senior Eva Reyes, who set a new section record for six dives with 347.20 points to win the Division I girls individual championship.
“Practicing at night in the cold and the rain on those boards at Las Palmas was not good, but here on these boards today was good,” she said with a telling smile.
The old section record had stood at 317.20 points set in 2015 by Escondido Charter’s Taylor Pamplin. The Division I record was 295.80 points set in 2016 by Torrey Pines’ Jackie Im.
Reyes obliterated both standing records.
She finished more than 50 points ahead of her nearest challenger, Westview senior Maya Belanger, who finished in second place with 292.40 points. Grossmont Hills League champion Kaila Getch (Grossmont sophomore) finished in third place with 281.90 points.
Reyes had previously turned in a personal best of 309.70 during regular season competition.
She finished second at the 2019 Division I finals as a sophomore before earning seventh place at the state championship meet.
After a vacant junior year, she is now a CIF champion.
“I think I was working on having fun this year in testing my technique and working in practices,” Reyes said. “It paid off. I wanted to have fun my last year in high school.”
Her coach Dan Kovar said Reyes followed the script they laid out for the meet.
“She was on fire,” Kovar said. “We talked about what she had to do to win — not missing a dive. She hit everything.
“She put in four years of hard work. We didn’t get anything last year. I’m glad they decided to hold the meet this year.”
Last Saturday’s Division I card included 12 divers in the girls field and 10 divers in the boys field.
The top six divers were recognized in the post-meet awards program.
San Pasqual senior Jacob Rewa, a state qualifier in 2019, won the Division I boys title with 281.95 points.
Torrey Pines freshman Ezra Purcell finished second with 232.40 points to serve notice for the future while Steele Canyon senior Ty Hunt placed third with 231.55 points and Steele Canyon junior Samuel Mascari was fourth with 227.30 points.
Poway senior Connor Curtin finished fifth with 225.45 points while Fallbrook senior Donovan Taylor was sixth with 207.10 points.
The preceding week, Mascari had placed second at the Grossmont Hills League finals with 231.75 points, while Hunt followed with 222.7 points in third place.
They both finished behind senior teammate Cole Stock, who finished ninth in the 10-deep CIF field with 176.40 points.
“I had never beaten Cole before,” Hunt said. “It was really great. I’m going to chalk it up to it being my day. I didn’t put any pressure on myself, not to stress out. I just wanted to have fun. To get third in CIF is amazing.”
“I expected to place at least top five,” Mascari noted. “It was good competition. I was trying to focus on myself. To place fourth was empowering. Now I want to come back and win it. I have higher expectations for myself next year.”
Rounding out the top six place-finishers in the Division I girls field were Poway senior Morgan Thompson (fourth place, 278.75 points), Del Norte senior Emma Duggan (fifth place, 270.45 points) and Torrey Pines junior Ali Polidori (sixth place, 260.90 points).
Sixteen of the divers in the combined field scored more than 200 points, including nine of the 12 female divers.
With the 3-4-9 finish Steele Canyon won the Division I boys team diving competition with 27 points to place ahead of runner-up San Pasqual (16 points). Torrey Pines and Poway tied for third place with 13 points while Helix finished in fifth place with 12 points. Fallbrook finished sixth with nine points.
Westview won the Division I girls team title with 17 points.
“It was a great end to the season,” Steele Canyon dive coach Tori Denlinger said. “No one knew for sure that it would happen. Everyone had fun. We had not practiced since league finals. It was a great experience.”
The Division II dive finals, held last Friday at the same site, included 15 divers — 10 girls and five boys.
Top three finishers in the girls field included Cathedral Catholic’s Bowie Krawczyk with 298 points, La Jolla Country Day’s Lauren Miller with 240.15 points and Coastal Academy’s Alia Peterson with 232.55 points.
Top three finishers in the boys field included Ramona’s Caden Clark with 210.40 points, La Jolla Country Day’s Ethan Estrada with 181.55 points and El Capitan’s Isaac Liddle with 163.10 points.
Liddle, who competed at the 2019 CIF finals, entered last Friday’s meet as the reigning Grossmont Valley League boys champion.
Vaquero teammate Filip Dominque, the second-place finisher at the league finals, was fifth at the CIF meet.
Grossmont Valley League girls champion Riley Goar, a freshman from Santana, finished sixth deep in the Division II girls field.
“My senior year, it felt really good,” Liddle said. “A good way to go out.”
“It feels pretty amazing to place at CIF my first year,” Goar said.
Goar out-pointed El Capitan’s Marina Rose (who was undefeated in dual meet competition) at the league finals.
Section co-tournament director Brian Wilbur lauded the efforts of the divers in attendance.
“I think diving is a small community, but we have some national-caliber kids here,” Wilbur said.
“We’re excited to have it continue.”
“It turned out to be an excellent weekend,” Granite Hills dive coach Ron Ortiz added. “Having swimming and diving together on the same day was the way to go. It was exciting.”
